Twilight Zone – The Eye of the Beholder

★★★★★  November 11, 1960 Season 2 Episode 6

If you want to see where we are…HERE is a list of the episodes.

One of the true classic Twilight Zones. The episode is set in a dystopian society. Rod Serling was great at creating them. To be different…  means being ostracized with the rest of your kind. It could be set on earth, a far away planet, or in a different time…it doesn’t matter. Undesirables get exiled for the crime of being different.

The ending has an incredible twist. It still holds up through on repeat viewings. What is normal? What is beauty? Who decides that?

Two actresses play the same character in this episode. Maxine Stuart and Donna Douglas.  The first was Maxine Stuart, as Janet Tyler in bandages. The director cast her because of her voice, her voice did not suggest a beautiful girl it suggested a strong, harsh, realistic woman, and therefore the unveiling would be a surprise. She was going to dub her voice over the top of Donna Douglas’s part but Donna’s voice was so similar to  they just kept her voice.

A young Donna Douglas plays Janet Tyler. Although not well known at the time, she soon would be, as Jed Clampett’s daughter Ellie on The Beverly Hillbillies. She was not yet known to anybody, but she was absolutely stunning.

I’ve seen this epidsode listed by two names…now I know why. Originally a “The” preceded the title, until television producer Stuart Reynolds threatened to sue Rod Serling for the use of the name because at the time he was selling an educational film of the same name to public schools. Reruns following the initial broadcast featured the title screen “The Private World of Darkness.”

This show was written by Rod Serling

Rod Serling’s Opening Narration: 

Suspended in time and space for a moment, your introduction to Miss Janet Tyler, who lives in a very private world of darkness. A universe whose dimensions are the size, thickness, length of the swath of bandages that cover her face. In a moment we will go back into this room, and also in a moment we will look under those bandages. Keeping in mind of course that we are not to be surprised by what we see, because this isn’t just a hospital, and this patient 307 is not just a woman. This happens to be the Twilight Zone, and Miss Janet Tyler, with you, is about to enter it.

Summary

Janet Tyler is in hospital having undergone treatment to make her look normal. It’s her 11th trip to the hospital for treatment and she is desperate to look like everyone else. Some of her earliest childhood memories are of people looking away, horrified by her appearance. Her bandages will soon come off and she can only hope that this, her last treatment, will have done the trick. If not, her doctor has told she will be segregated with a colony of similar looking people. All that to say that truth is truly in the eye of the beholder.

VIDEO SPOILERS

Rod Serling’s Closing Narration:

Now the questions that come to mind: “Where is this place and when is it?” “What kind of world where ugliness is the norm and beauty the deviation from that norm?” You want an answer? The answer is it doesn’t make any difference, because the old saying happens to be true. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, in this year or a hundred years hence. On this planet or wherever there is human life – perhaps out amongst the stars – beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Lesson to be learned in the Twilight Zone.

CAST

Rod Serling – Narrator
Maxine Stuart – Janet Tyler (under bandages)
Donna Douglas – Janet Tyler (unmasked)
William D. Gordon – Doctor Bernardi
Jennifer Howard – Nurse
Edson Stroll – Walter Smith

…

Advertisement

Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball fan, old movie and tv show fan... and a songwriter, bass and guitar player.

36 thoughts on “Twilight Zone – The Eye of the Beholder”

  1. I agree a classic- 5 stars- the first time I saw this of course I didn’t see the ending coming.. but even after repeat viewings it holds up as an entertaining episode that I enjoy.

    Liked by 4 people

    Reply

  2. I had never seen this episode before, although had seen some clips of TZ that kind of gave it away, so knew what was coming. I imagine if I hadn’t known it would have been even more stunning, but even so, still works – classic episode. I also like how the episode was filmed where you don’t see anyone’s face, but the mood and atmosphere is so creepy and dystopian that you don’t really wonder why (or have a clue as to what the twist will be.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

    1. It is a great episode… I showed it to my son when he was 8… it really scared him… then I felt bad lol but it still works. He now at 21 loves the show…

      Liked by 2 people

      Reply

      1. It’s a good one, for sure. I think even if I hadn’t read your piece beforehand, I would have suspected the “twist” by about 12 or so minutes in, realizing that they weren’t showing any character’s face AND it is the Twilight Zone after all. But still, it was a good one and there was suspence to see what everyone looked like. I liked the sorta happy ending with Mr Smith arriving for her.

        Liked by 2 people

      2. Yes and it I think it was a statement on our society. Poor 8 year old Bailey cried when he saw those faces…I didn’t think it would get to him.

        Like

      3. I watched it last night (and 1 other that I will comment on at that post) but I won’t be watching any more at Hulu. It would show maybe a minute of the show and then time out and I’d to reload it. After doing that for 2 episodes I had my fill. That said…
        Now I see the banner on netflix was from that episode. I figured it out pretty quickly but I loved that surprise happy ending. I didn’t know 2 played the part but that voice in the bandage didn’t sound like Ellie Mae! Good episode and interesting how the leader on the tv was pushing for conformity! So realistic.

        Liked by 1 person

    1. I showed Bailey this when he was 8….scared the hell out of him and he started to cry…I knew it worked then lol

      Like

      Reply

      8. Oh yea…I told him to go in the kitchen and tell her hi and she would talk like on the commercials. He went into the kitchen and started to say hi to the Miss Butterworth bottle we had…he tried and tried and then went upstairs crying because she wouldn’t talk back…about 2 minutes later I heard a “MAX” from Jennifer lol.

        Like

  10. TEoftB has earned its classic status. But I always thought it took too long to get to the twist and so its impact was diminished. But maybe that comes from having seen the episode so many times, too.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply
  11. Pingback: Twilight Zone Season 2 Review – PowerPop… An Eclectic Collection of Pop Culture

Leave a Reply

Please log in using one of these methods to post your comment:

Gravatar
WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Cancel

Connecting to %s

%d bloggers like this: